Review: Wesa-A-Geh-Ya Sanctuary

Judge Dalton ruled on 5/6/08 this breeder is not a sanctuary. Please do not show their name as a sanctuary. They are an unlicensed breeder.7994

This is absolutely crazy... did anyone watch the news this morning? and has anyone seen the living conditions those animals are stuck in. Those animals need to be taken somewhere that CAN take care of them. The attack on that volunteer is not really that surprising but is unfortunate. When animals are neglected they will act differently than usual and especially a wild animal no matter how domestic you think they are. All these people do is whine about the lack of money and lack of community support... they RELY on donations for everything now... The community should NOT support an unsafe facility in the area and NOBODY should support the living conditions for those animals. They need to be taken somewhere that can provide the sizable areas they need, better outdoor conditions, and better vet & food abilities.

I have been to wesa a geh ya (in 2001) I can only say... I was horrified. The living conditions were disgusting. Yes the animals are suffering cruelty and constant breeding. The Smiths have no business with animals of any kind. I hope the authorities will keep a close watch on the animals until they are all safely out of the clutches of the Smiths

Now that someone has been attacked and the owners couldn't cover it up what does their President think of them now. Pray for Jordan to recover and pray for justice for the life of these starved, abused animals.

First of all, the man's name was Jacob. Second of all, their "president" is supposedly just as criminal as they are. He volunteers there as well, so who's to say he wasn't lying right along side them?

Straight facts: Sorry for the mistake. I was thinking of Jordan Wilson who wrote the false story in the Post-Dispatch 6/16/08 which the president of Wesa, who knows nothing of the past atrocities committed by the owners of this facility, defended the owners. The article claimed the Smiths "rescued" the lion cub and bear cub and were rehabilitating them. She further claimed the USDA found them and threatened to kill them (the bear and lion died in 2002) if they did not drop their USDA license 12/17/03. The newsman refused to check or read the facts. Check the "Tattoo Mafia" website of the President of this nonprofit group. The bear cub was purchased to breed to their bear and the lion cub was born there the only one in a litter of four that survived being born on 12/25/01. He was raised by a volunteer in Ladue.

Please pray for JACOB BARR'S RECOVERY. He had a third operation this week. He was put in harm's way by his "friend" a board member of Wesa's nonprofit corporation while the owners sat in their house trailer. Yes, they still hold a nonprofit license to "acquire and care for animals for education".

Rosella Baller wrote:

Judge Dalton ruled on 5/6/08 this breeder is not a sanctuary. Please do not show their name as a sanctuary. They are an unlicensed breeder.7994

Why do you claim to be from Las vegas NV when you live 7 miles from the Smiths in Missouri?

Judge Dalton made no such ruling. He stated he felt as though it was a Mom and Pop Operation but the truth of the fact is Wesa-a-geh-ya is a sanctuary, it is a non profit organization in good standing with the state of Missouri. They hold a proclamation from the Missouri Senate stating them as a sanctuary.

The papers stated that Ken Smith was found guilty of not registering 55 animals. This is also untrue. He was charged with failure to register, there was no number of animals in the charge. He was not found guilty he was placed on probation, pending the outcome of his probation he will not even have the charge on his record.

He did register the animals, the Sherriff lied on the stand claiming he had the book with him when in fact he did not. He had to call the office to get a statement of the number of animals on record.

The birth of the last set of cubs born at Wesa-a-geh-ya was an accidental birth. The female was placed in a cage temporarliy with a male so that her cage could be repaired. She was not even supposed to be in season yet at the time.

Since when are you the tiger police for Warren county?

How do you get away with calling the police and making false reports of tigers in your back yard?

How did you get away with posing as a federal agent and enter Jonesburg school and question a student with out the parents knowledge a few years ago?

Keeping pointing fingers maybe someone needs to look into you a little deeper.

How many of your animals do you possess illegally? There are several fowl on your premises that require permits that you do not have.

Perhaps if you had minded your own business instead of sticking it in theirs the Smiths would have the funding needed to make Wesa-a-geh-ya what it was supposed to be.
Because of you and people like you, their funding was cut to the point that they could not make the improvements necessary. Because of you and people like you planning and zoning deny their every request to make improvements.

Why dont you tell the truth about why you no longer help the Smiths? You used to. All you do is sit back and make accusations.
You keep hinting to people that you have all kinds of records and secret information, when in fact you have nothing that anyone else couldn't come up with by doing a google search.

The only things you have are the pictures where you cut and paste little clips. You take a grainy black and white out of focus picture of a water dish and paste on a snippet that claims " ohh look filthy water" when in fact you can't tell what is in the dish at all.
You take a picture of a wheel barrel full of bones a refuse and claim "disgusting cage conditions" The truth is the wheel barrel is full after cleaning the cages out.

You are a purely evil person with a cold heart.
If you wanted to help the animals you would have done so in a constructive way that benefitted them. Instead you try to cut off the Smiths food sources through anonymous phone calls, and you picket the court house with signs making false claims.

I personaly place some of the blame on you.

truth gets out wrote:

Straight facts: Sorry for the mistake. I was thinking of Jordan Wilson who wrote the false story in the Post-Dispatch 6/16/08 which the president of Wesa, who knows nothing of the past atrocities committed by the owners of this facility, defended the owners. The article claimed the Smiths "rescued" the lion cub and bear cub and were rehabilitating them. She further claimed the USDA found them and threatened to kill them (the bear and lion died in 2002) if they did not drop their USDA license 12/17/03. The newsman refused to check or read the facts. Check the "Tattoo Mafia" website of the President of this nonprofit group. The bear cub was purchased to breed to their bear and the lion cub was born there the only one in a litter of four that survived being born on 12/25/01. He was raised by a volunteer in Ladue.
Please pray for JACOB BARR'S RECOVERY. He had a third operation this week. He was put in harm's way by his "friend" a board member of Wesa's nonprofit corporation while the owners sat in their house trailer. Yes, they still hold a nonprofit license to "acquire and care for animals for education".

"The Tattoo Mafia" is a group of people who have gathered together to help the community we live in. We are no different than a car club. We do charity work for people in need. We helped a lady remove debris after the ice storm in high hill, we donated artificial eyebrows to a victim of spousal abuse, we trimmed trees damaged to keep them from hurting anyone and we volunteered at Wesa-a-geh-ya to help take care of animals in need.
The word Mafia means Family because we treat each other as a family. We chose Tattoo Mafia because every member is tattooed. We are a tattooed family.

Just what are you trying to insinuate by saying "Check the "Tattoo Mafia" website of the President of this nonprofit group."? If you really wanted them to check it out how about giving them the URL
www.myspace.com/thetattoomafia
or the email address
thetattoomafia@yahoo.com

By the way every member of the tattoo mafia is a friend of Jacob Barrs' And he may possibly become a member himself.

As for not knowing the "Attrocities of their past"? What is there to know? The facts or the sensationalized version provided by those with different motivations?

I was asked questions by Jordan for his story and I answered them as honestly as I was able. Jordan interview Sandy as well so not everything in the article was my words.
Every story has 2 sides.

straight facts wrote:

First of all, the man's name was Jacob. Second of all, their "president" is supposedly just as criminal as they are. He volunteers there as well, so who's to say he wasn't lying right along side them?

I was in South Dakota at the time of the attack.
I have been the president of the board for approx 3 months. I haven't lied to anyone about any of this.

Then I apologise. However some people DID lie. Did no one stop to think that doctors would know the difference between a pit bull attack and a freakin' tiger? Please.

From what I'm reading, it seems like a lot of you are in a piss fight with each other, or the Smith's and could care less about the welfare of the animals. I know alot of facts about the animals living conditions and how they were(NOT)
cared for, have seen it for myself. I am very sorry this young man was attacked, but he probably thinks more about what the animals have been put through instead of himself. All the best to you Jacob, I hope you are doing well.

If you check the Warrenton Journal the judge ruled Wesa was not a sanctuary and therefore was required to report the animals. No one seems to care that over 30 were reported "dead & buried" during this bench trial. This isn't a "piss fight", the fact is MO has no laws on humane treatment. The USDA PERMANENTLY REVOKED their license for 35 violations of the Animal Welfare Act. This is what eliminated the donations, no one individual. The story in the Post claimed the Smiths had to drop the license in 12/03 or the sick lion cub & bear cub which died in 2002 would be euthanized. Is there any end to the number of lies told. Everyone but the owners care about the animals. A caring person would never breed animals to a life in prison, over 20 of the tigers needing homes were born at Wesa. If you knew the facts the animals shipped out came from a fellow breeder. The only animals belonging to the owners, were offspring born there.

The Judge would not accept the Senate Resolution as proof of anything! The Senate does not have the authority to legally call a breeder a "sanctuary".

Hopefully the young man gets help with his medical expenses and continues to improve. The only help for the animals is to get them out. It seems the prosecutor needs to charge the owners again for Failure to Report animals.

The nonprofit corporation was formed as a "zoo" not a sanctuary and when the owners dropped their exhibitor license the Attorney General made them change their name. They are not legally listed with any agency as a "sanctuary" including the IRS. They opened as a zoo & changed their name, illegally calling it a "sanctuary", in 2000 to obtain donations. What was done with all the money?

I am sure of the woman had illegal animals the county would know as many times as you make the claim.

truth gets out......if you would re read some of these comments, you would see that people are attacking each other for the comments they are posting. I know exactly what you are saying about the animals. I asked the Smiths not to breed a pair of lions that they got in 2001. They produced babies that either didn't live long or they had severe spinal deformaties, but they did it anyway. Where are those lions now???? Probably in with the missing. The animals never meant anything to the Smiths, only what they could get out of them,and in whatever way they could get it.
The bad part is...the place they went to does exactly the same things, so although the community may be in a little less fear of wild animals escaping....the animals are in no better shape than they were at Wesa, and that is a terrible shame.

Kathie, I am glad someone else knows the truth. The lion cub, Jeffrey, that died, was born 12/25/01 in a litter of four. The temp was 7 degrees that night and one cub died immediately. The second died later, third was euthanized due to spinal deformaties and Jeffrey lived to 9 months. What humane person would allow lions to breed in the winter and give birth outside? The prosecutor refused to charge animal abuse, one reason was he felt the people of Warren Co. would just view it as "another dead animal". The number of eyewitness accounts and vet reports would have proven abuse to any jury if they had just been charged and the evidence presented. Now the animals have been sent or loaned/leased to a place just as bad.

Hi Truth.
Did Jeffery seem normal at first? The Smiths had aniamls given to them around Sept 2001. If Jeffery was born in Dec 2001, I am sure his parents are the pair that I think they are. They knew they produced sick or dead babies, because I told them.That just proves my point about them, they don't care. The lions were closely related and should've NEVER been caged together let alone breed. I feel like you could answer some questions about the other animals of 2001. I absolutely do know the truth about them. I spoke with both of them and didn't get the same story twice. They would'nt tell the truth if it was written down for them. I hope they don't move off somewhere else and start their torture zoo again, but it would'nt surprise me if they did. Will probably join the place that took the cats. I dare not say rescued, because that word should only be used by legitimate facilities and GW is not. Have the remaining animals been removed yet?

That would have been the animals from Ray Berry, Alabama Cats of Curryville, a fellow breeder probably Mufasa, male & Simbanala Female. Jeffrey was normal until the Smiths picked him up from his foster mother, too young to be weaned, but he was needed for Open house which proves the point "they don't care" especially since he was just a male. Go to the Rama website under Wesa a geh ya and you can see the photos of the open house. Two tigers went to National Tiger in Ste. Genevieve which I believe are the only true rescues. The Smiths never kept accurate records as you well know so the people tried to identify them with their photos. The animals are supposed to all be gone by Sunday 8/31 and the Smiths are in the process of taking the "perimeter" fence down. An interesting note, the Bobcat skid loader has been broken & the Smiths asked a visitor for $7,000 to repair it. Since the tigers & lions were "donated" the Bobcat is up and running. The Smiths refused to let the elderly woman that raised Bonnie & Clyde (lions born in the same time frame) rescue them so they went to G.W. and will probably be bred even though they are litter mates. There is a photo of a litter of tigers born in 2008 on Chad's website. "We don't breed!" Your comments echo the letter in the Post Dispatch from Beth Preiss, HSUS. As you know the Humane Society of St. Louis has never been interested in what went on with the animals. These facts can all be proven.

Thank you for responding....I check everyday. YES,
these are the same animals. The Smiths were also very interested in getting white babies out of Alex and Alley because she's had them in the past, but she had partically been breed to death. Did you know that R.Berry used to live on the Smiths property years ago? He has told me alot of bad news about them.....figures he would know because he's no better.......only in it for the money. Do you know anything about the black leopard..Bagherra, Huggie the bear, Kerra the small female leopard?????????? I think Simbanala may still be living, but I don't think Mufasa is.????????? Am I correct?
I have looked at the Rama website. If they didn't breed, why in the hell were there always so many babies running around? When I went in Nov 2001,
(unannounced,mind you) They had 5-6 tiger cubs less than a year old, that were terribly infested with ring worm, and the Smiths were not going to treat them for it. Thats the same day he told me they were going to get Alley fattened up so they could "get some white babies out of her".
No....the Humane Society really doesn't do anything except ask for donations....they certainly don't protect animals.....if they did, this kind of crap wouldn't be happening.
I don't know anything about National Tiger in Ste.Genevieve. I've been to Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida and Turpentine Creek in Arkansas. TC in Arkansas have done some great improvements in the last few years. About 75 of there cats are in 1/2 to 1 acre habitats as well as all the bears. They recently build a large habitat for the handicap cats. I know there have been bad comments about TC on the web.....But I cannot agree with them....I know how good their cats are living. Thanks again for responding back..wish there was some other way we could talk....would probably take a month to share what we both know.
Have a safe holiday weekend.

Huggie was sent to GW as well as Kerra the leopard. Simbanala is alive as well as Mufasa.

I was told the black leopard died.(last summer?)

The skid loader that has been running around is not the same skid loader. That one was Donated by Ficke Farms.
I know I helped unload it.
The broken one was delivered to St. Louis bobcat to be traded in on a used one and was part of a donation arrangement with Ficke Farms.

I'm done defending the Smiths unless its something I can personally vouch for.

To Chadlin
Thank you for your info about the animals.
Mufasa, Simbanala and Huggie all have to be close to 20yrs.if not older. Kerra would be about 8yrs.
None of them have had the best life. Thanks again.

It is a shame that their life will not improve at G.W. especially Huggy needing a root canal. Most likely he will "die" and become a rug. So much for the owner's claims of having a vet. I doubt seriously that the black leopard died, no body, no vet report? The people that Wesa sold animals to previously claimed a dead black leopard brought $75,000 mounted and they want people to believe they buried this amount of money!

There were 8 tigers left on Friday so hopefully this will be the end of the breeding, killing and selling. Hopefully the owners will be charged by Warren Co. in the unnecessary attack on Jacob.